Featured Puppy - Jackson

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Jackson is a Lab/Border Collie from Coquitlam, British Columbia

Featured in 12, 2010

Jackson's Story:

When we decided to adopt a dog we had some ideas of what we wanted. A young medium sized dog(but not a puppy)that was good with people, most importantly kids as well as other animals, quiet and house trained were important as well.

After an extensive search of animal shelter websites we found Jackson's picture and information about him the Maple Ridge SPCA site. We immediately got very excited about him. We had to go see him right away. We called and drove there, they were every nice and let us stay an extra 45 minutes after closing to get to know him.

As soon as I looked into his eyes I fell in love with him. We made arrangements for the very next day to have our cousin's two sons come and spend some time with him to make sure he got along well with children. He seemed to be good with them. Jackson soon became part of our family.

Being that is was summer time we wanted to have him play out front with us, but he would run away into neighbours yards and houses. He also took off in the park. When he would play with the kids he would jump up and sometimes nipped at them. Jackson would place his paw on your arm or lap while drinking hot drinks that would spill. We were unable to correct him and were getting frustrated, help was needed.

Having an untrained dog before, we were worried that history would repeat itself . We did not want to do regular group dog training classed because they are limited to a certain amount of sessions, with little or no support afterwards. Also most people we knew found them unsatisfactory.

It was suggested to call "Sit Happens" dog training by a neighbours friend . We checked out the website and read the testimonials. I gave them a call and we set up a free consultation around our schedule, and they came to our house to find out what concerns we had. The trainer then showed us their dogs, giving them a variety of commands such as sit and stay even though their toy was was thrown and landed on the ground not far away. Then they had the dogs heel off leash in a very distracting environment, it was impressive! It was then time for a demonstration with Jackson to see how he followed their commands. We could see he followed the directions well and showed the potential of becoming the kind of well trained dog we were hoping for. A recommended program was then explained, it included private training classes at our home inside and outside unlimited group classes. With much enthusiasm and hope we signed up.

Sit Happens came back to our home and worked with us and Jackson to get us ready for the group classed and to help get Jackson to listen to us when giving him a commands. We went to the first class and Jeff was right there to make sure everything was ok and it was, Jackson did very well. Within a couple of weeks he was off leash in the class and I was very ecstatic that in in such a short time our dog could learn so much and behave so well. I was in tears with joy.

Jackson and I are really enjoying the classed and look forward to them. Each one is different with new things to learn.